By Patrick McHugh: Oleksandr Usyk is preparing for his fight next month against WBO cruiserweight champion Krzystof Glowacki, (26-0-0, 16KO’s) on September 17 at the Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland. Usyk, a 2012 Olympic Gold medalist for Ukraine, is on course to become the fastest world champion in history if he can beat the 30-year-old Glowacki to capture his World Boxing Organization title.
Photos Courtesy/K2 Promotions Ukraine
This will be the toughest fight for Usyk ((-0, 9 KOs) since he turned pro in 2013. Usyk hasn’t been tested yet since stepped up to the pro ranks, so this should be interesting to see how he does against Glowacki. There are some boxing fans who feel that the 6’0” Glowacki is the best fighter in the cruiserweight division.
It’s hard to say if he is based on his last two fights against Steve Cunningham and Marco Huck. Despite winning the fights, Glowacki was out-boxed and out-landed during stretches of each of the fights. Cunningham was outworking Glowacki in the rounds that he wasn’t getting knocked down. Glowacki dropped Cunningham twice in round two and once in the 10th and 12th rounds. Surprisingly, Glowacki won by the fairly close scores of 115-109, 115-109 and 115-108. For the scores to be that close in fight involving four knockdowns, it tells you that Glowacki was having some problems with Cunningham’s work rate.
“I feel terrific and I’m completely focused on winning the world championship on September 17th,” said Usyk. “This was my next goal after winning the Gold Medal in 2012.”
The 6’3” Usyk will be enjoying a three inch height and reach advantage over the 6-foot Glowacki in this fight. Both fighters are southpaws, so neither of them will have an advantage in that department. Some southpaws are uncomfortable fighting other southpaws because they’re so used to fighting guys that fight out of the orthodox stance. Glowacki appears to be the bigger puncher of the two. Usyk is a big puncher too with his left hand, but he tends to be economical when it comes to throwing his left hand power shots. Usyk likes to wait a lot before throwing his big shots.
Usyk, 29, appears to have the goods to beat Glowacki and dominate the cruiserweight division for a long time. Unfortunately, it’s not likely that Usyk will be able to unify the titles once he captures the WBO belt because the different champions appear to be satisfied defending their straps against the various contenders. For example, the WBC champion Tony Bellew is fighting an unranked fighter in BJ Flores in his next defense.
There’s not a lot of urgency from the cruiserweight champions to take meaningful fights or to take any real risks. Glowacki is no different. Instead of facing the dangerous Usyk or Murat Gassiev in his first defense, he opted to fight 40-year-old fringe contender Steve Cunningham.
Uysk may need to stand and slug with Glowacki in this fight because his reach might not be enough to keep the Polish fighter off of him. Glowacki is good at closing the distance quickly against his taller opponents. He did that against the 6’3″ Cunningham all night long in thier fight. Usyk might need to actually slug with Glowacki if he wants to win the fight because boxing him probably won’t do the job on September 17.